


Chic and his tricks (and how he stops turning them)

by emberlem



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Panic Attacks, Prostitution, Subdrop, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 19:44:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14172114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emberlem/pseuds/emberlem
Summary: Chic learns that he doesn't need to be so wary of people who offer him their help; and he learns that he can make a better life for himself and his boys.





	Chic and his tricks (and how he stops turning them)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! First post here and already it's all angst and prostitution and fear about not fitting in. Hopefully my formatting doesn't screw up and that I did't make too many mistakes while typing this!!!!! 
> 
> Personally, I really want to see Chic's character being explored more - especially since Hart Denton is adorable and it would be good if they could get a happy ending for Chic (especially in light of the recent episode) (and the fact that Chic looks like he's about to cry every time he ends up on screen).
> 
> //also why can't I tag them as a threesome proper cry

Chic Cooper is used to change. To moving. It’s all he’s been doing since he was young – ever since the Sisters of Quiet Mercy kicked him out at the age of 15 with the clothes on his back and a limited church-controlled understanding of the world and its academic disciplines.

 

He’s used to helplessness – to men much larger than him looming over his shoulder, shouting at him, and backing him into a corner. And he knows that in these kind of situations, the only thing he can do is make himself small – _let them think you’re small and weak and let them hit you and let them do what they want because it might hurt now but you’ll live in the end and that’s what’s important_. Sometimes he forgets why it’s important to live, and he wakes up shaking in a ball on the floor coming down from a particularly bad trip.

 

Most importantly, he’s used to picking up after his own messes and ensuring that he’s got his own back, because _people like him don’t have the luxury of having someone they can trust_. The guy turning tricks in the room next to yours will sooner stab you and take whatever money you have before helping you when you’re being raped.

 

Chic grows up scrappy and tough, and to him, that’s all he needs.

 

He doesn’t expect a blonde girl with a sweet smile and a gentle confidence to barge into his life and declare that he suddenly has a family now. Naturally, he thinks it’s a trap at first – some cruel plan to take the homeless destitute rent boy who sells his body for a living and brandish him around to say _‘See, we took him out of that situation, aren’t we good people?’_. So he waits, and hides in corners, and makes sure he’s as unobtrusive as possible so that when they finally chuck him out, they won’t hurt him as badly as they would have if he made himself noticeable. When Betty snarls at him that she “did it for mom, not you”, it surprises him with how much he hurts even as the sense of satisfaction – that he was right all along – sinks in.

 

He still works as a camboy and he still turns tricks because he needs to save up money to move somewhere when he finally gets kicked out – but he sells his body as far away from the Cooper household as possible so that Hal won’t have a greater reason to hit him.

 

In other words, Chic will travel to the Roving Eye to ‘work’ when Alice leaves the house, even though the club is an hour away by foot and Chic isn’t in the best condition to be making such long walks considering that he’s been malnourished all his life. He’ll hover around the edges, waiting to catch somebody’s eye. The regulars at the club know him well, and they know him _intimately_ – how his voice breaks as they force themselves down his throat and into his ass and how he slumps to the side trembling with a dazed expression once it’s over and he’s got their money stuffed deep into a hidden pocket. Most of the time, Chic finds his way back to the Cooper household and his _– no Polly’s_ – room in a daze and burrows under his heavy duvet until it passes. However, recently, someone has been guiding him away from the Roving Eye after his ‘work’. He’s been waking up securely tucked into bed with water and a protein bar or fruits next to him, and the vague memory of warm leather, gentle voices, and careful hands. It’s only when he runs into the Serpents for the first time that he freezes in shock, because the familiar voices belong to Fangs Fogarty and Sweet Pea, and both look like the kind of guy who’d take him apart and watch him beg and cry for the fun of it. He waits for a chance for them to be alone together before he asks them “ _What do you want from me._ ” in a trembling voice coloured with fear and tension and the thought in his head that he has to find _something_ to use as a bargaining chip against them. All that Sweet Pea and Fangs do is to stare at him in confusion, and that only sends Chic into a greater panic.

 

He’s hunched over on the floor before he even realises it, and there’s a steady voice and a firm hand on the back of his neck telling him to “ **Breathe with me – in and out – nice and slowly ok?** ”. Somehow, Fangs manages to bundle him into his leather jacket and into his car and Chic only comes back to himself when he’s on Sweet Pea’s couch, bundled into a swathe of blankets with his back pressed against Fang’s chest and a low soothing voice murmuring _ridiculous_ things in his ear. When Fangs moves on to a story of how Sweet Pea fell into a storm drain and tore his pants when they were 11, Chic croaks out the same question that he asked earlier – “What do you want from me?”

 

Fang’s voice stutters in surprise before Sweet Pea’s voice floats over from another room, “Nothing, pretty boy. You just looked like you needed someone to help take care of you once in a while.” He moves into view carrying an opened bottle of water and passes it to Chic, gesturing at him to drink from it.

 

Chic doesn’t know how to react. He takes a long drink from the bottle, then lets the silence stretch out as Sweet Pea takes a seat on the couch next to him. All three boys end up dozing off on each other’s shoulders.

 

A few days later, Chic finds himself with the boys again.

 

They’re kind, and he can’t figure them out. He usually has to carefully cut people out of the picture before they gave him their attention – the promise that they wouldn’t try to replace him or cut him out – because there wouldn’t be anyone left if they did. But these two boys just focus their attention so warmly on him that he somehow feels reassured that they won’t simply throw him aside even if they have others close to their hearts.

 

It’s over some canned soup in Sweet Pea’s trailer that he shares with his brother who’s never home because he’s working to put food on the table that Chic finds out that Fangs is in the foster system. It comes out casually – Sweet Pea is asking him about his new home and the adults in it and Fangs shrugs and says “They’re all the same y’know – not many foster parents want to keep a 16 year old who isn’t great at his studies and hangs out with a gang. I’ll go back into the system soon enough and they’ll shuffle me to another family.” Chic doesn’t say anything, as usual, but he shuffles a little closer and leans his shoulder against Fang’s. He thinks to himself that he could have ended up like Fangs if Alice hadn’t sent him to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and paid all those years so that he at least had something constant – if not that pleasant – in his youth.

 

Eventually he also finds out that Sweet Pea and his brother barely make enough to eat something more than canned soup and most days they can’t even afford heat. He starts bringing food over from the Cooper household discreetly – Alice always cooks a substantial amount for meals, and Chic understands what it’s like to live on little food with poor nutritional content. He figures that he might as well bring over leftovers, since they’re bound to get thrown away in a few days anyway.

 

When the boys start getting more involved in the town politics and the school administration, they start having less time for Chic. Initially he thinks it’s good – he’ll have more time to himself, and maybe more time to sell his body for cash. He doesn’t expect that he will drop hard after the first guy finishes in his mouth and turns around and leaves. He’s on the ground in the alley huddled up on himself, eyes glazed over, and trembling like a leaf immediately and it feels like he’ll never be warm again. The usual feelings of worthlessness and isolation swirl around his head, and it’s all that he can do to keep breathing in shaky sobs as he stares out at the alleyway in a daze. Someone calls Fangs. Chic slowly comes back to the present with a large warm hand running through his hair and a smooth warm voice rumbling stupid stuff at him while trying to coax him into having a drink. When he finally rouses enough to focus on Fangs, the only thing that the other boy says is “Hey beautiful, good to have you back with us,” Chic starts to realise that his boys are there for him – and that they don’t care that he’s stained or that he has his own personal deep-seated issues.

 

Chic talks to Alice about furthering his education. It comes out of the blue over breakfast, and he’s surprised at how thrilled she is at about him taking an online diploma course so that he has better career paths. He works _so damn hard_ but doesn’t tell the boys until he gets the certificate and gets a proper job and starts to fund his boys who had so little to give but gave whatever they could – and they’re such good boys that he wants to pay for whatever they need so that they can achieve their dreams. In order to get a decent job, however, Chic moves across the country and away from Riverdale.

 

At first, it’s _hard_ – he doesn’t see Alice any more, and he’s only able to talk to Sweet Pea and Fangs over Skype after work. But at the same time, he’s away from Betty’s mistrustful glares and insinuating words and he can breathe a little easier. Nobody really knows him in this town, and that means his past can’t jump out at him around a corner. He saves up his money and remits it to an account that he shares with Sweet Pea and Fangs and orders them to use the monies for their daily needs – and occasionally their wants. He works hard to fund his boys for their education and to make sure that they’re never hungry, and he makes transfers to Alice’s bank account regularly – not because she needs it, but because he wants to make sure he supports her regardless.

 

He stops turning tricks, and he stops being a camboy – because while it paid for what he needed back then, he doesn’t need it to support himself or the people important to him any more. All in all, it’s a good story, and a great one for Riverdale.

 

When Sweet Pea and Fangs graduate from Riverdale High, Chic visits and his heart is so full he feels like he’s about to burst as his boys beam at him from the stage where they’re colleting their graduation certificates. They smother him in hugs once they get off the stage, and Chic thinks to himself that if it weren’t for these two guiding lights, he would have lost all sense of purpose years ago. Then, Fangs nips his ear teasingly and Chic laughs -bright and unexpectedly - and whispers just how much he loves them.


End file.
